Halloween is just around the corner. This means that it is time to start planning your costume and determining the route that you'll take for trick-or-treating. While you may be excited for Halloween, your teeth are not. In fact, they're likely pretty scared. Your teeth know that it is about time for them to have to endure sour, sticky and sugary candy. They hope that you'll choose safer, healthier alternatives. It's okay to have a little candy here and there, but Halloween is a time for people to eat excess candy, causing some serious oral health damage. To help you out this October 31st, here are four of the worst candies for your teeth that you may want to avoid:
1. Skittles
This bag of rainbow circles may look pretty, offer tons of different flavors, and create the perfect combination of both sweet and sour, but Skittles have a very high pH level. This means the rainbow candies are highly acidic. In fact, the pH level of 2.5 can drastically erode your enamel.
2. Twix
Ah, the sticky and sugary combination of caramel, chocolate and wafers that you find within a Twix can be heavenly. Unfortunately, anything that is sticky like caramel can stick to your teeth and cause erosion of the enamel as well as decay. This is especially true if the candy is left to sit on your teeth and gums for an extended period of time.
3. Swedish Fish
Swedish Fish is a candy that is known to have one of the highest ratios of sugar and calories, with the small little fish containing 29g of sugar and 140 calories. The little fish are gummy, which mean that they love to stick to your teeth and gums. They stay there until you are able to brush them away, which allows them even more time to cause significant oral health damage.
4. Jolly Rancher
Jolly Ranchers tend to be a popular candy come Halloween, but they really shouldn't get into your mouth. Sure, they have a beautiful punch of flavor, but the hard candy creates the perfect environment for breaking and chipping of your teeth. Who wants to be in the dentist's office the day after Halloween getting a broken tooth fixed? Plus, the longer you suck on a piece of hard, sugary candy, the more time the sugar has to set in and coat your teeth. This means that your teeth become much more susceptible to cavities.
When there is a whole lot of candy around, like at Halloween, it can be very hard to remember your oral health. However, it is crucial that you take the time to pay attention to the types of candy that you're popping into your mouth and consuming as well as the potential impact the candy can have on your oral health. Ask yourself this: is a sugar rush truly worth the diminishing health of your teeth and gums this Halloween?
Contact a group like Iowa Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons, PC for more information.
Share26 August 2015
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